Jacqueline

Jacqueline V. R., 26, lives with her small five year old son in the El Sauce de Santa Teresita Turrialba community in the Cargao province. It is a small rural community with approximately two thousand inhabitants. The community members work at milk production and planting coffee. The landscape is irregular, and much of the land is humid tropical rain forest. The community has very colorful scenery that combines the tropical rainforest with two pretty lakes, coffee plantations, and dairies. El Sauce is located approximately an hour and a half by bus from Turrialba, which is the closest commercial center. Nevertheless, several times a year the road becomes impassable because of the rains that batter the area. This is, without doubt, one of the biggest challenges for the area.

When there was no work, many people chose to leave to look for work in Turrialba or in banana farms located in the Atlántic area of Costa Rica. Currently, the coffee and milk prices have improved. Therefore, the members of the neighborhood are looking for ways to invest in projects in their own zone in order to avoid emigrating.

As part of the solution to this situation, two years ago a cheese making plant was set up in the community. It is the property of the Association of Milk Producers of El Sauce. This motivated Jacqueline to set up milk production to later sell to the plant. Jacqueline wants a loan for ¢500,000 (five hundred thousand colones) to buy a milking cow in order to set up her business. She wants to be a successful entrepreneur and be able to help her family get ahead. That is one of the things that motivate her to put forth effort and work very hard. She says that her priority is to be able to support her son, give him the opportunity to get ahead in his education, and give him an adequate quality of life.

Jacqueline is a member of the Association of Producers of El Sauce, one of the one hundred organizations belonging to the micro finance association Edesa in Costa Rica. This will be her tenth loan, and she hopes to continue growing on a personal and economic level. Thanks to this type of organization and their means for facilitating loans, she can spend more time on productive activities.

Additional Information

More information about this loan

As a small and relatively young MFI located in Costa Rica, EDESA has difficulty attracting other sources of capital. Many other microfinance funders do not work in Costa Rica, because overall the country is too rich. However, organizations such as EDESA work with extremely marginalized populations in Costa Rica that really need the access to capital that EDESA provides. By funding EDESA, Kiva lenders are allowing the organization to grow and reach more people than they otherwise would be able to reach.